Speakers at the Guwahati Book Fair Highlighted the Crisis Faced By The Print Media Industry in India
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
8 February
2021
The 33rd
Guwahati Book Fair (30 December 2020 to 10 January 2021) will be remembered for
various reasons and one must be the visible space dedicated to the cause of
Tibet and its peace-loving people. It was, in fact, the first big event across
India as the un-lockdown process for the Covid-19 pandemic started. A huge
number of book publishers, writers, journalists, conscious readers, onlookers
assembled every day in the fair.
Popularly
known as Guwahati Granthamela, organized by the government-run Asom Prakasan
Parisad (Publication Board Assam) at Assam Engineering Institute playground in
Chandmari locality of the city, and had attracted from 30,000 to over one lakh
visitors every day.
It
comprised of around 125 stalls and the entry was made free. Books worth Rs
eight crore were sold in the fair which also witnessed a number of literary
discussions, book release functions and various competitions among the
children.
Formally
inaugurated by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s media adviser
Hrishikesh Goswami in presence of noted intellectual Tathagata Roy, renowned
litterateur Yeshe Dorjee Thongshi with other dignitaries, the book fair, which
was earlier postponed for two times, got enriched by every evening’s spectacular cultural shows
which were organized following the corona-related health protocols.
Representing
CM Sonowal in the function, Goswami conveyed the goodwill to everyone
commenting that books are the oasis in deserts which nurtures the intellectual
and creative capacities of human beings. He also conferred the publication
board’s lifetime achievement award for 2019 on eminent Assamese scholar Dr
Thaneswar Sarma in presence of all dignitaries.
The former
Governor of Tripura, Meghalaya and
Arunachal Pradesh, Roy in his speech termed Assamese as a sweet language and
expressed hope that the bonhomie between Assamese and Bengali people
would continue in future too. A resident of West Bengal but familiar
with the Assamese society, the outspoken author observed that
the National Education Policy 2020 should immensely help in highlighting
the regional languages and their literature.
Padmashri
Thongshi, who is a resident of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, described
various challenges surfaced due to the corona-pandemic. The Sahitya Academy
awardee derived a positive note out of the pandemic with the increase of
quality readers across the world. Thongshi expressed happiness that a
collection of literary pieces including novels, short stories, folk tales, etc
written in both Assamese and English by another Arunachali litterateur Lumber
Dai was released in the function.
“We are
satisfied with the public response to the book fair. The publication board
continued to work soon after the un-lockdown began. We have reprinted many rare
books in Assamese and also given space to new creations by established authors
as well as promising authors,” said Pramod Kalita, secretary to the publication
board, which launched the book fair movement in early eighties initially in
collaboration with National Book Trust of India.
The
twelve-day fair witnessed the impressive selling of a resourceful poetry
collection by academy awardee Hiren Bhattacharjee, a new novel by another academy winner Rita
Chowdhury, literary works by Phanindra Kr Devchoudhury, Dhrubajyoti Bora,
Anuradha Sarma Pujari, Jayanta Madhav Bora,
Geetali Borah, Dambarudhar Nath, Namrata Dutta, Dhirumoni Gogoi, Pankaj
Dutta, Jintu Geetartha, Abhijit Bora, Aayub Ali Sarma, etc.
A novel
narrating the life of a bus driver by
debutant Rupam Dutta was sold like hot cakes, where an Assamese classic ‘Asimat
Jar Heral Seema’ by Kanchan Baruah, a
biography of veteran Congress leader Tarun Gogoi, the Assamese translation of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s letters
to his mother by Utpal Dutta also received well responses from the visitors.
C.M Sonowal
while taking time out of his busy schedule visited the book fair and collected
some of his favourite books. He graced the stall erected by the State information and public relations
department and interacted with the book lovers.
Later he twitted that the books have the power to take everyone to a new
world. He also fondly remembered his school days as a regular visitor to
Granthamela.
The closing
ceremony was graced by Asom Sahitya Sabha president Kuladhar Saikia and Bodo
Sahitya Sabha president Taren Boro where both the heads of influential literary
forums expressed satisfactions over selling of quantity books in the fair. Sumanta Chaliha, who presided over the
meeting, revealed that the publication board itself sold books worth Rs 12
lakh. He also thanked State education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along with
others for whole hearted supports for the fair.
A stall
dedicated to Bangladesh literature attracted a large number of visitors where
Bangladeshi diplomat Shah Mohamed Tanvir Monsur, now based in the city, was
personally present for some time. The tourism department also participated in
the fair with a cute stall for the first time with an aim to disseminate
information about tourism potentials in the country for domestic tourists.
In a
session discussing on post-corona challenges and possibilities by the book
(publication) industry, various speakers were in unanimous that the pandemic
had severely affected the sector including and also the physical newspapers,
but at the same time it helped to increase the number of committed readers precisely
among the new generation. They opined that
the process of publication and marketing of Assamese books also
reemerged with new approaches to the technology driven profession for the
interest of valued readers.
The
speakers also highlighted the crisis faced by the print media industry as most
of the readers still evade taking the newspapers inside their residences.
Initially it was the rumour that newspapers could carry the corona-virus that
discouraged senior citizens to read their favourite papers and lately challenges emerged as most
of the newsy contents become swiftly available in various digital platforms.
Inaugurating the session, senior publisher Nabin Baruah thoroughly described
the hardship faced by the publication houses as the corona-pandemic hit the
country in early March. He however opined that the disaster helped everyone to
redefine his life in a tricky and isolated ambience. Many people could regain
their habit of reading and many others join the group of committed readers
irrespective of the paper-printed books or digital outlets, he observed.
The session
was addressed by some young publishers including Pritima Kaushik Barua, Manish
Hazarika, Dhiraj Lahkar, Amrit Upadhaya, Farhan Javed, Buljit Buragohain along
with award winning Assamese author Bipul Deuri. They observed that various
modern technological tools for publication, promotion and marketing would
finally bring a better deal
for quality
publishers around the world. Participating in the discussion, literary magazine
editor Mihir Deuri, senior journalist Dixit Sarma, poet Nabajyoti Pathak, a
vivid reader Nripen Dutta etc expressed concerns over the shrinkage of valued
readers in various regional languages but opined with confidences that it’s
time to promote Assamese as an internet-savvy language as well to reach
millions of readers living in different parts of the globe.
A book
release function in the fair paved the way for an intriguing discussion on the
issue of saffron. Senior journalist Rupam Barua described the saffron colour as
a most sacred entity to every Indian. He pointed out that the saffron is not
exclusive to Sanatan (Hindu) region alone,
but it is equally adorable to Sheikh, Jain and Buddhists. Even the great
Ahom king Rudra Singha admired the saffron colour putting it in his flag.
A number of
participants in the function, where scribe Biswajit Nath’s book was released,
criticized various motivated individuals for deriving the term as saffron
terrorism. Social activists Abhijit Sarma, Puspalata Nath, Ranjit Kalita along
with scribe Bandeep Goswami in their speeches admitted that they too love the
respect the saffron colour as it represents the magnificent treasures of Indian
culture and traditions existing for
thousands of years.
A
documentary show on Assam police’s women commando unit named Veerangana was an
interesting addition to the fair. State police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta and
popular Assamese artiste Mridula Baruah graced the occasion where the Kishore
Kalita directed film was screened. The
21-minute documentary narrates the story of those special female commandos who
keep ready themselves to serve the women in dire need of security.
Showcasing
the Tibetan culture added colours to the festival as two cultural evenings were
dedicated to the land of Dalai Lama.
Mesmerizing
performances by the artistes from Gangjong Doeghar, an independent local
organization comprising of Tibetans, Sherpas and Bhutias based in Kalimpong,
engrossed the audience with fascinating music and dances. The freedom movement
led by the exile Tibetans against the Communist regime in Beijing also came
alive in a stall which was opened by Tibetan support group leader RK Khrimey.
Graced by the Tibetan exile government representative Jigmey Tsultrim and
moderated by Buddha enthusiast Soumyadeep Datta, the stall exhibited a number
of exotic photographs depicting the lives of common Tibetans in and around the
Potala palace in Lhasa. Moreover, strong
political messages for a Free Tibet were also aired with the tagline that China
was never a neighbour to India (but Tibet) and Beijing’s ongoing destructive
activities on Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra in Tibet) would only devastate the
ecology of northeast India and northern Bangladesh.
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Nava
Thakuria is a northeast India based journalist and country contributor to PEC
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